In an effort to bring the spread of infectious diseases under control, the multibillion-dollar Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will make its official debut at a ceremony in New York next month.

The three-day ceremony, which will open April 22, will be attended by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, other officials of the United Nations and affiliated organizations, and ministerial-level officials from U.N.-member states.

Japan is expected to send former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.

The Board, the Geneva-based fund's highest decision-making body, is chaired by Dr. Chrispus Kiyonga, a former Ugandan health minister who headed a committee established last summer to work out the fund's organizational and functional details.

Seiji Morimoto, deputy director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's international cooperation bureau, was recently selected as vice chairman of the Board.

"I think I was chosen as Board vice chairman because the international community appreciates what Japan has done since the G8 (Group of Eight) summit in Okinawa to contribute to fighting infectious diseases," Morimoto said.

During the G8 summit in Okinawa in July 2000, Mori, then prime minister, announced a Japanese aid initiative under which it promised to extend $3 billion to developing countries over a five-year period to help them combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Japan also pledged $200 million for the new fund during the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, last year.

The Board has 18 members with voting rights — government officials from seven industrialized and seven developing countries and four private-sector representatives. Of the four private-sector representatives, two are from nongovernmental organizations and the others from business circles.

The World Bank and two U.N.-affiliated bodies based in Geneva — the World Health Organization and UNAIDS — are also represented on the Board as observers who do not hold voting rights.

The fund will convene biannual general assembly sessions that will be attended by all financial contributors to the fund, including individuals, governments, and private companies and organizations.

At its first regular meeting, to be held in New York during the fund's inaugural ceremony, the Board will select a director general of the fund secretariat in Geneva and decide specific projects to be financed.

Annan first proposed the fund for fighting infectious diseases one year ago. The fund's swift establishment reflects a strong sense of urgency shared by the international community.

In June, the U.N. special General Assembly session on AIDS adopted a declaration calling for the early establishment of the fund.

The G8 countries — the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Russia — also endorsed the fund at the Genoa summit in late July and pledged $1.3 billion to the fund, including Japan's $200 million.

Although Annan has said up to $10 billion will ultimately be needed, financial contributions pledged so far by the international community total a mere $1.7 billion.

According to the U.N., 36 million people around the globe were infected with the AIDS virus in 2000. Nearly 70 percent of the cases were in heavily impoverished sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS medicine is too expensive for most patients. The number of AIDS deaths around the world reached a record 3 million in 2000.

However, while attention has been focused on the dire conditions in Africa, Japan wants more attention paid to Asia, according to Japanese officials.

In early February, Japan and other Asian members of the fund's Board, including China and Thailand, held a meeting in Beijing to brief fellow Asian countries on the fund's details.

Officials from 35 Asian countries participated in the briefing, showing how strongly they are interested in the fund, the officials said.

So far, no Japanese private-sector business has made a financial contribution to the fund.

"After the New York inaugural ceremony in late April," Morimoto said, "we want to convene a meeting with domestic private businesspeople as soon as possible to explain the fund and request their financial support."